'''Elizabeth Van Lew''' (1818-1900) was born in Richmond, Virginia, on October 15, 1818, the first child of John Van Lew and Eliza Louise Baker Van Lew.<ref>U. S. Find A Grave Index 1600s-Current, [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1056/elizabeth-van_lew Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), Memorial #1056], record added January 1, 2001, accessed December 12, 2018,</ref> Elizabeth Van Lew was an Unionist spy from her home in Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

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Van Lew's father ran a hardware business and owned several slaves. Van Lew was educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was first exposed to abolitionism. After the death of her father, Van Lew and her mother freed the family's eleven even though her father said they couldn't, the slaves included Mary Bowser. Then they bought and freed some of their relatives. Upon the outbreak of the war, Van Lew began working on behalf of the Union. When Libby Prison was opened in Richmond, Van Lew was allowed to bring food, clothing, writing paper, and other things to the Union soldiers imprisoned there. She aided prisoners in escape attempts, passing them information about safe houses and getting a Union sympathizer appointed to the prison. Prisoners gave Van Lew information on Confederate troop levels and movements, which she was able to pass on to Union commanders. Van Lew also operated a spy ring of 12 people during the war, including clerks in the war and navy departments of the Confederacy and a Richmond mayoral candidate. Van Lew was able to have Bowser hired by Varina Davis, which allowed Bowser to spy in the White House of the Confederacy.

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'''Elizabeth Van Lew''' (1818-1900) was born in Richmond, Virginia, on October 15, 1818, the first child of John Van Lew and Eliza Louise Baker Van Lew.<ref>U. S. Find A Grave Index 1600s-Current, [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1056/elizabeth-van_lew Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), Memorial #1056], record added January 1, 2001, accessed December 12, 2018,</ref> Elizabeth Van Lew was a Unionist who served as a spy for the United States during the U. S. Civil War from her home in Confederate States of America capital of Richmond, Virginia.

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Van Lew's spy network was so efficient that on several occasions she sent Ulysses S. Grant fresh flowers from her garden and a copy of the Richmond newspaper. She developed a cipher system and often smuggled messages out of Richmond in hollow eggs. Van Lew's work was valued by the United States. George H. Sharpe, intelligence officer for the Army of the Potomac, credited her with "the greater portion of our intelligence in 1864-65." On Grant's first visit to Richmond after the war, he took tea with Van Lew, and later appointed her postmaster of Richmond. Grant said of her "You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war." After Reconstruction, Van Lew became increasingly ostracized in Richmond. She persuaded the United States Department of War to give her all of her records, so she could hide the true extent of her espionage from her neighbors. Having spent her family's fortune on intelligence activities during the war, she tried in vain to be reimbursed by the federal government. Van Lew died on September 25, 1900, and was buried Shockhoe Cemetery in Richmond.

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" Motivated by her opposition to slavery, Van Lew headed up a Union spy ring in the Confederate capital that aided Federal prisoners there and gathered intelligence for the U. S. Army; its greatest achievements were the breakout of 109 Union inmates from Libby Prison [a few blocks from Van Lew's home] and the clandestine reburial of the slain Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren, both in the spring of 1864."<ref>Elizabeth R. Varon, Elizabeth Van Lew: Southern Lady, Union Spy (University of Georgia Press: 2015), 305-322.</ref>

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Van Lew’s anti-slavery sentiments evolved over time. As a member of the wealthy slaveholding Richmond society, she believed “through individual acts of kindness, charity, and manumission they [slaveholders] could erode slavery gradually, from the inside.”<ref> Ibid. </ref> The willingness of southern states to dissolve the union of states led Van Lew to the conclusion that the south will not change of their own accord. Her abolitionist leanings evolved over time beginning with her parents’ influence, her Philadelphia education, and her ultimate philosophical disagreement with the Confederate States of America. <ref> Ibid. </ref>

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Van Lew's spy network was so efficient that on several occasions she sent Ulysses S. Grant fresh flowers from her garden and a copy of the Richmond newspaper. She developed a cipher system and often smuggled messages out of Richmond in hollow eggs. Van Lew's work was valued by the United States. George H. Sharpe, intelligence officer for the Army of the Potomac, credited her with "the greater portion of our intelligence in 1864-65." On Grant's first visit to Richmond after the war, he took tea with Van Lew, and later appointed her postmaster of Richmond. Grant said of her "You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war." After Reconstruction, Van Lew became increasingly ostracized in Richmond. She persuaded the United States Department of War to give her all of her records, so she could hide the true extent of her espionage from her neighbors. Having spent her family's fortune on intelligence activities during the war, she tried in vain to be reimbursed by the federal government.

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Van Lew died on September 25, 1900, and was buried Shockhoe Cemetery in Richmond.

Biographical Sketch

Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900) was born in Richmond, Virginia, on October 15, 1818, the first child of John Van Lew and Eliza Louise Baker Van Lew.[1] Elizabeth Van Lew was a Unionist who served as a spy for the United States during the U. S. Civil War from her home in Confederate States of America capital of Richmond, Virginia.

" Motivated by her opposition to slavery, Van Lew headed up a Union spy ring in the Confederate capital that aided Federal prisoners there and gathered intelligence for the U. S. Army; its greatest achievements were the breakout of 109 Union inmates from Libby Prison [a few blocks from Van Lew's home] and the clandestine reburial of the slain Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren, both in the spring of 1864."[2]

Van Lew’s anti-slavery sentiments evolved over time. As a member of the wealthy slaveholding Richmond society, she believed “through individual acts of kindness, charity, and manumission they [slaveholders] could erode slavery gradually, from the inside.”[3] The willingness of southern states to dissolve the union of states led Van Lew to the conclusion that the south will not change of their own accord. Her abolitionist leanings evolved over time beginning with her parents’ influence, her Philadelphia education, and her ultimate philosophical disagreement with the Confederate States of America. [4]

Van Lew's spy network was so efficient that on several occasions she sent Ulysses S. Grant fresh flowers from her garden and a copy of the Richmond newspaper. She developed a cipher system and often smuggled messages out of Richmond in hollow eggs. Van Lew's work was valued by the United States. George H. Sharpe, intelligence officer for the Army of the Potomac, credited her with "the greater portion of our intelligence in 1864-65." On Grant's first visit to Richmond after the war, he took tea with Van Lew, and later appointed her postmaster of Richmond. Grant said of her "You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war." After Reconstruction, Van Lew became increasingly ostracized in Richmond. She persuaded the United States Department of War to give her all of her records, so she could hide the true extent of her espionage from her neighbors. Having spent her family's fortune on intelligence activities during the war, she tried in vain to be reimbursed by the federal government.

Van Lew died on September 25, 1900, and was buried Shockhoe Cemetery in Richmond.

External Links/Further Reading

Elizabeth R. Varnon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy : The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

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